Blogging Again/Meeting Raina

I am finally back to blogging!  It has been very frustrating not being able to blog while we were gone.   In Quiyang the Internet service was sporadic at best.  My email was not working.  The couple we travelled with said we could use their computer, but it was taking them an hour to send 1 picture.  I decided to wait until we reached Beijing.  Once in Beijing my email was "compromised" so I set up a different account which still did not work.  Eventually we discovered that the service in our room wasn't working.  By this time I was soooo frustrated I gave up.  Instead of chatting with our boys via Skype or Gmail we called home every few days.  Now that we are finally home I will post what I had planned to post...hopefully a few each day, depending on the craziness in our household.

Malia travelled amazingly well and was a real trooper.  She slept well on the way to Beijing and was her cheerful self.  We landed in Beijing around 4 pm, had supper and went to sleep.  The next morning we got a wake up call at 4am.  I tried to convince our guide that we only needed a 4:30am wake up call.  A half hour is all we needed, but that did not happen. (Can you tell I love my sleep!?!)  After a 3 hour flight we arrived in Quiyang around lunch time.  The weather was beautiful...similar to a gorgeous fall day in Saskatchewan.

Around 3 pm we arrived at the Quiyang Social Welfare Institute.  I recognized Raina and her foster mother immediately.  Raina's foster mom was crying as she walked in and needless to say I cried too.  It took a long time to finally be able to hold Raina.  The poor woman struggled to hand her over to us even though she wanted Raina to be adopted.  Raina was in her care from the age of  3 days and was adored by her foster parents.

I held Raina for a bit and then it was back to her foster mom.  Every fiber in my being ached to hold her and yet I wanted to be fair and let Raina's foster mom enjoy her last moments with Raina.  Hopefully we will be able to send up dates through FOI who would then forward it to Quiyang SWI.   Raina's foster mom knit the outfit she is wearing along with a blue sweater she was wearing under the yellow outfit.  She also wrote a letter to all of us...very thoughtful and touching!  We also received a stack of pictures of Raina, even one where she is 3 days old!  We will treasure these photos forever...what a precious and unexpected gift!

Daddy already in love with his precious daughter!